Control Risks is delighted to launch RiskMap 2013, our authoritative guide to business risk in the year ahead. Drawing upon expertise from across our business worldwide, we forecast what will be the major challenges and opportunities of doing business in some of the world?s most complex environments next year.

The enduring unpopularity of Congress appears to have seeped into the nation's 435 congressional districts, as a record-low percentage of registered voters, 46%, now say the U.S. representative in their own congressional district deserves re-election. Equally historic, the share of voters saying most members of Congress deserve re-election has fallen to 17%, a new nadir.

Abortion Incidence and Service Availability In the United States, 2011

Autor: Guttmacher

In 2011, an estimated 1.1 million abortions were performed in the United States; the abortion rate was 16.9 per 1,000 women aged 15?44, representing a drop of 13% since 2008. The number of abortion providers declined 4%; the number of clinics dropped 1%. In 2011, 89% of counties had no clinics, and 38% of women of reproductive age lived in those counties. Early medication abortions accounted for a greater proportion of nonhospital abortions in 2011 (23%) than in 2008 (17%). Of the 106 new abortion restrictions implemented during the study period, few or none appeared to be related to state-level patterns in abortion rates or number of providers.

Even before the ongoing massive protests in Venezuela, the majority of residents feared for their country's political stability -- for the first time in recent history. A majority (53%) in late 2013 said their country was not stable at all, more than double the 26% who said so in 2012. Another 35% said the political situation was somewhat stable, and fewer than one in 10 Venezuelans (9%) said the political situation was very stable.